Half a Celtic Knot....and some pen jigs

[Phillip H Smith]

Seeing some of the fine work displayed here using the Celtic Knot designed inspired me to give it a try. As you'll see...Inspiration and Skill are two apparently unrelated concepts!

The pen below is made with Jatoba and Purpleheart. I made it stubby so it'll fit nicely in my wife's purse.

As you'll note, I only made two of the required four inserts. The real trick is to have the insert wood the same thickness of the saw kerf. My piece of Purpleheart was just a tad over the 1/8" kerf of my saw...so things started to go haywire fast. Hence, I just decided to stop with two "rings" and see how it turned out, so to speak. Not great but not too bad either. So my next task is to try to be more precise.

For two good tutorials on how to do this see: http://www.georgeandsirik.com/knot-tutorial.html
http://user.gru.net/garyg-1/woodwork/DoubleCrossPen.pdf

Also in the spirit of sharing...I'll pass along some photos of other jigs I/ve made for pen making.

The pen blank cutting jig is somewhat self explanatory. Just two pieces of hardwood scrap glued together. I marked the lengths of my most commonly cut blanks on the lower board...which is also attached to my miter gauge by doublestick tape. The upper board acts as a stop.

My pen blank drilling jig was made using some scrap hardwood. I used my router table to cut a 45d "trough" lengthwise, then ripped the board into sections equal to the length of the blanks I use. I hold the blank between the 45ds with a Bessey clamp. Since the quill of my drill press is only 2 1/8", I often have to drill part way then insert a piece of MDF under the jig to get the hole completely through a blank.

My shopmade pen press is made from hardwood and plywood scrap. I made this (with some modifications) using plans at this site: http://absolutelyfreeplans.com/WORKS...p_projects.htm

I'd be interested in seeing jigs that others have made, as we can all learn better ways to do things.

[Grant Wilkinson]

I love the pen press, Phil. I just use a phenolic cube in my drill press, but yours has a sort of Rube Goldberg thing going on that is really fun.

Grant
Ottawa ON

[Harvey M. Taylor]

Our local Woodcraft sells a clamp like yours for drilling pen blanks with this modification:2 square holes tightened with bolts and wing nuts so it is easy to handle and clamp. I use my bench clamp with 2 blocks of wood attached to the jaws. Craft supplies has a grooved block of plastic as a gauge to squeeze the bottom of a slimline pen together after installing the point in the lower section, specific to the slimline pen only. It is pictured in the first two or three pages of their new catalog. I cheated and made my own, to save the 10 bucks.